


(Their) Defiance Will Shake the Stars

by Zoa



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Death, F/M, Great Galactic War, Illnesses, Post-Mass Effect 3, Violence, War, the Mass Effect au no one asked for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-02
Updated: 2019-10-02
Packaged: 2020-10-14 08:46:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20597972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zoa/pseuds/Zoa
Summary: 2286 : 100 years after the Reaper War.The repercussions of the Reaper invasion are still seen and felt across the galaxy, but the scars are slowly fading as new growth sprouts in its wake.The Genophage cured, the Krogans have flourished and built a new empire that rivals even the Asari Republic and Turian Hierarchy. In the name of unification they have been given a place on the new Citadel Council.However, in the dark recesses of the galaxy a new threat rises and the hard won peace is in the balance.Two of the strongest biotics the galaxy has ever seen must come together and defeat the new evil, facing odds not seen in a century. Against the odds, love, loss, and redemption weave a web through the stars that forges an unbreakable bond between them.And lights the way to save the galaxy.





	(Their) Defiance Will Shake the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Why am I publishing yet another fic with *counts* four other wips in the works? becauseeeeeeeeeee this was something that's been in my head for awhile. it's pure self-indulgence and a bit experimental for me so we'll see how it goes!
> 
> \---
> 
> If you're familiar with the Mass Effect series, this future is based on the Aftermath: Extended Cut addition to ME3 - Shepard died but destroyed the Reapers.
> 
> Please see the end notes for a glossary of terms.

**Omega - Sahrabik System - Omega Nebula**

The little girl curled herself into the tiniest ball she could. She had just wanted it all to stop. The beatings for not doing a good job. Being yelled at for bringing the wrong thing. She hadn’t meant to hurt him. But it had been too much - she could still feel the sensation of his fingers around her throat. But now she would be punished far worse. Taken from Omega on a prison ship meant for the evilest of biotic criminals. Fat tears rolled down her cheeks but she didn’t move from her position laying on the cold, metal cot in her dark cell. 

She didn’t know what happened. The last thing she remembered was Unkar wrapping his grotesque fingers around her. A flash of light and a warming sensation through her body followed then Unkar was on the ground and he wasn’t moving. He didn’t move. 

Now she was in the Eclipse headquarters on Omega, a strange, cold place, surrounded by metal and floating through endless stars. The mercs had seemed afraid of her. She was afraid too. Blue light flickered at her fingertips and she folded them tightly in her torn shirt, burying her face in the smelly pillow under her head and rocking back and forth to stave off the wave of energy building up inside her. What was happening?

Then the door to her cell slid open with a hiss and a shadow fell across the girl - a tall one with a strange silhouette. When the girl raised her head the most beautiful lady she’d ever seen stood in the doorway. The woman wore an elegant dress of blue silk that flowed around her like a river and complemented her purple, freckled complexion. Tentacles which swept neatly to the back of the woman’s head faded into a lighter shade of purple, a lilac color wholly unique to her species. The girl had seen Asari before, but none as ethereal as the woman who stood before her now. 

“What is your name, child?” The woman asked, kneeling beside the little girl where she lay. Her voice was soft and steady. Not at all harsh or accusing or afraid. Tenderness filled her expression. The girl sniffed and rubbed at her runny nose, drawn to the woman despite the instincts she’d honed to protect herself.

“Rey.” The little girl whispered and sniffed again. A silken handkerchief was pressed into her hand and the little girl marveled at how soft it was. She didn’t want to ruin it but her nose was running awfully. Slowly she lifted it and wiped at her wet face. 

“Hello, Rey,” the woman smiled kindly, “my name is Selene. I’m going to take you home.”

The little girl frowned in confusion through her tangled brown hair. “My home is here. Omega.” 

That cruel station violently carved from a dead meteor, capital of the Terminus Systems, home to the galaxy’s worst. But nonetheless the only home Rey knew.Abandoned there when she was a baby by parents who didn’t want her. 

The beautiful woman shook her head and brushed Rey’s hair from her face with gentle fingers - the touch of a mother. 

“My home, dear one. _Your_ new home.” Then the woman stood, her gown cascading around her like a waterfall and offered Rey her hand. Rey hesitated but when the woman remained there, patient, she slowly got to her feet and slid her fingers into the proffered hand. 

Rey was lead out of the cold room by the beautiful lady and, for the first time in her young ten years, wasn’t afraid of what lay before her. 

For the first time she had hope. 

****

_11 Years Later_

**Imeria - Pethanai System - Asari Republic**

Rey checked her gear - tapping the safety on her pistol and making sure her sword was sheathed properly - for the hundredth time as the shuttle made its way to the surface of the cold, rocky planet below. Imeria was in the boondocks of Asari space but was home to a strategically placed colony that was in need of help. 

“Are you serious?” a giggle came from beside her and Rey lifted her head to glare at the woman in the next seat, her best friend and unconditional pain in the ass. “This isn’t the barracks. Calla’s not checking every other second.”

“All the more reason for me to make sure everything is tight, Samira.” Rey retorted. The green Asari rolled her eyes and was about to retaliate when their tall leader, Lieutenant Calla, barked at them from her position near the shuttle’s hatch, her turquoise face contorted in a severe glare. Mostly directed at Rey. 

“Rey! For Goddess’ sake, stop checking your gear. If it’s not good now it never will be. Samira! Maybe if you checked yours more often you wouldn’t have your fucking shotgun sliding off your ass during maneuvers!”

The five other Commandos in the shuttle tittered with laughter and Samira’s green face turned a sickly shade of red. Rey couldn’t stop her own snort of amusement and Samira stabbed her in the side with an elbow. Rey’s brown, Commando-issue armor absorbed the blow, but nonetheless Rey winced and shot Samira an apologetic smile. 

She was grateful for the friendship she and the Asari shared. Samira was one of the few reasons Rey was in the Commandos. 

When Selene had brought her to Thessia, Rey had no idea what the Matriarch had planned. She did not have to wait long. The day after arriving on the Asari home world Selene took Rey to the Commando headquarters, where she had Rey placed into the new class of cadets, and Rey began to learn the ways of the Asari’s elite military unit. 

Even though Rey was not the only human to receive Commando training (Cora Harper was the first, but she disappeared before the Reaper War in some wild expedition to the Andromeda Galaxy a hundred years before) she was not welcomed with open arms. The Asari treasured their tactics dearly and preferred not to share them with other species, especially after the war, but when a Matriarch gave an order, it was to be obeyed. 

That didn’t prevent the Commando instructors from making Rey’s education harder than the rest. Throughout her journey up the Commando ranks Rey was tested again and again, her superiors and fellow trainees alike often spewing xenophobic attacks at her, telling her she didn’t belong, that she was weak, nothing. That she should go back to Omega. Pitting her against impossible odds in training to try and push her out.

All these things burned inside her and pushed her to prove them all wrong. She would prove to them and to Selene she was worthy of being a Commando. She would fight for her place. 

While Selene wasn’t present, neither did she abandon Rey to the jeers and humiliation. They communicated often and sometimes Selene came to visit, though after Rey turned fifteen she asked Selene to stop visiting. The others thought that Rey was receiving special treatment because she had a Matriarch as a sponsor and the last thing Rey needed was any more reason for them to hate her. 

But while the visits stopped, the calls did not. Rey commed Selene every week and they talked for hours. Whenever Rey even hinted at being discouraged, Selene would stop her. 

“You are stronger than you know, child,” she’d say. “You are destined for great things. You may have to fight a little harder some days, but you will win, my little Rey of light.”

And so Rey continued until finally, finally, she finished her training and joined Calla’s squad. Rey was seventeen at the time, the youngest by far, but her age did not intimidate her. Her biotics had been honed to a fine point and were some of the strongest seen yet in a human (only one other compared, a promising young man in Citadel space who was being groomed to be a Spectre).

Not only had she sharpened her biotic skills, Rey was also made proficient in all manner of weaponry - a necessary Commando attribute. But her weapon of choice was a simple, curved Asari sword. 

The sword was commonly used among the Commandos but never as the operative’s sole weapon. Rey was considered insane for the choice and often laughed at in the sparring circle. Until the fight began. Then it was a flurry of biotics and twirls of her sword and before the timer had run thirty seconds Rey had overwhelmed her armed opponent before she could fire a single shot. 

Despite Rey’s preferences, when she joined Lieutenant Calla’s group the Asari insisted Rey take a pistol too, because “I’m not wiping your human ass off the floor when you get shot in the head.”

Rey didn’t argue. Calla’s was the only squad who would accept her, as begrudging as they were. If her adopted mother had had her way, Rey would have been with the best Commando unit in the military, but Rey wanted to do it on her own. And so she’d petitioned every squad leader in the Asari forces until she’d come down to Calla, who decided to give the human Commando a chance. 

It was there she found Samira. The Asari was young as well - only fifty, still in her Maiden stage of life, seeking a purpose like Rey. The two clicked together immediately and Samira became Rey’s greatest advocate and best friend in a half hostile squad. In turn Rey always had Samira’s back, no matter the mission. It had been that way for three years. The two of them protecting each other from enemies and allies alike. 

“Alright squad,” Calla called out and Rey snapped to attention. “Shuttle is about to land. Get ready. Remember, we’re investigating an outbreak of an unknown biological agent. Weapons probably won’t be necessary, but keep your helmets on. We don’t need whatever this is spreading.”

A minute later the shuttle landed on the only pad in Naira, the colony town on Imeria - calculated at four hundred citizens - and the eight Commandos alit with their signature efficiency. 

Rey went back over their mission objective in her head: investigate the colony’s request for medical assistance.

Imeria had been a burgeoning colony world before the Reaper War begun but was decimated during that conflict. Now recolonized, it was rebuilding just as the rest of the galaxy was. Weekly checks were made, reports sent to Thessia, but the reports had begun to include comments on some kind of illness effecting Naira’s people. The last report had been a desperate plea for help and the Asari hadn’t hesitated to send out a supply ship, but dispatched a Commando unit ahead of it to investigate. 

As Rey’s unit stepped up to the automatic doors that would allow them entrance to the colony’s welcome center, she took the opportunity to look around. Snow drifted around them in a light but steady stream and rocky hills rose and fell around them. The horizon showed more hills and even more rocks. She didn’t understand why the Asari would want to renew a colony in such a wasteland but then again she barely understood the Asari themselves and she’d lived with them for eleven years. 

There was something strange in the atmosphere in Naira though, an ominousness that had the hairs on Rey’s neck standing up. She instinctively put up a biotic barrier and Samira looked at her curiously. 

The automatic doors opened to a sight none of the Commandos had been prepared for: a hallway full of the sick. 

A horrific symphony of coughing and pained wheezing greeted the Commandos as they made their way down the hallway, carefully avoiding the awkward arms or legs that jutted out from their owner’s body. 

Rey had never seen the likes of it, even on Omega - and she’d seen a lot on Omega. The smell was the worst part… even through her mask Rey could make out the awful stench of sick that pervaded the area. For a moment she thought she was going to be sick herself and almost gave in to the instinct to run back outside but she reprimanded herself. She could handle this. 

A blue Asari laying by the wall heaved herself onto her side and released what must have been the contents of her entire stomach into Rey’s path as she passed. 

Rey was barely able to avoid stepping in the mess. 

“What happened here?” Samira breathed, her helmet’s radio distorting her voice slightly. Rey glanced over and saw her friend paler than death. Apparently poor Samira didn’t have the stomach for this kind of mission. 

“That’s what we’re here to find out,” Calla supplied grimly. And hopefully cure, Rey added in her head. Nobody had died yet, according to the status reports from the colony, but from the looks of it that outcome was only a matter of time. 

When Rey unit had traversed halfway down the hallway, they were confronted by an Asari who, despite the handkerchief she held over her mouth, maintained a stately composure. 

“Illyssa T’Pol, governor of Naira. You’re the Commandos sent by Thessia?” She asked. Calla nodded and the relief was plain to see on the other Asari’s green face. 

“Thank the Goddess! Come with me to my office,” she beckoned with her free hand. “We can talk there.”

****

“Half the colony is sick.” Governor T’Pol said as she collapsed heavily into the chair behind her glass desk. “It happened so suddenly we can’t even pinpoint when the first case was."

Rey stood on the other side of the desk, flanking Lieutenant Calla along with Samira. The other Commandos remained outside. The office was a clean room with one window behind the governor’s desk that overlooked the rest of the colony. There were a few holopictures on the desk of another Asari and two children; the governor’s family, Rey supposed.

The governor coughed into the handkerchief and Rey winced. It was a wracking cough, the kind that sounds like it hurts. 

“Can you make a guess?” Calla asked once the governor recovered and Rey could practically hear the frown she wore on her face. 

Governor T’pol that ended in a few more coughs but struggled through to answer. “From what we can tell,” she gasped, “the illness began not long after a group of cultists visited. Humans.” She added with a hint of bias. Rey was glad she was wearing a mask; otherwise she feared the governor would have been less cooperative. She didn’t miss Samira’s head tilt in her direction and inclined her head to acknowledge her friend’s silent inquiry. 

“What was their religion?” Calla asked in the meantime. 

The Governor nodded. “That was the first question we asked. For security reasons. They were very forthcoming: they believe all beings capable of biotics come from another dimension, one to which we should return to achieve true harmony in the universe. Of course it’s all nonsense, but they seemed harmless enough. Until this.”

Rey glanced at Calla, waiting for her commander’s reaction. 

“Do you know how these cultists might have disseminated the illness?” Calla asked, ever the practical military leader. 

Governor T’Pol shook her head wearily. “No. We haven’t got a clue. The best we can do is guess it was through physical contact. Skin to skin. Our air filters should have destroyed any biological agent.”

“Hmm,” Calla turned to Samira. “Tell the others to split into pairs and gather intelligence from the colonists.” After Samira left she returned her attention to the governor. “Do you know where the colonists went when they left?”

“I was afraid you’d ask that,” Governor T’Pol sighed. “No, we don’t. They said they were going to get as far as they could on the fuel we provided after the relay jump, but there are hundreds of possibilities.”

A grim prospect lay in those possibilities. Whether or not the cultists were carrying the disease deliberately they had already spread it to other worlds. Most likely worlds beyond Asari space. Rey wondered if the Citadel was aware of the threat. If not, they would be when her Commando unit reported to the Republic. 

The governor lapsed in a heavy coughing fit and apologized, but could provide no other information. Rey followed Calla out of the office as the lieutenant alerted the waiting medical ship to land. Rey was glad: these people had suffered enough without help. 

After that the Commando investigation commenced in full. They spent a few days learning what they could from Naira’s people but very little was known about the cultists or where they might have gone after leaving the system. Rey and her fellow Commandos were met with dead end after dead end. 

When it seemed the disease was at least under control, Calla decided it was time to leave and make their return to Illyria. After they reported the Republic could decide what came next. 

As their shuttle lifted off of Naira’s little port, Rey looked down to watch their ascent. Slowly the landing pad disappeared in a curtain of snow, as if it might never have existed at all. 

****

Three days after Rey’s unit returned from Naira, Samira and the rest of the squad fell ill while in quarantine. Their suits had done nothing to protect them. 

It was surmised that the disease had to be an airborne illness, somehow able to get past the heavy duty filters of the colony and the Commando suits. And all the more dangerous for it. 

But the most devastating effect was to come. 

A week - only a week - after arriving back on Illyria, Samira was dead. The first casualty of an illness that was still a mystery to the doctors who tried to save her. At first it had progressed like what Rey had seen on Naira: a rasping cough deep in the chest, fever, nausea; but it seemed faster. She was throwing up blood in the last few hours and was in terrible pain. Rey could only watch in horror from behind the isolation room glass as Samira struggled through the final throws of a disease for which there was no known cure.

“We did everything we could,” the doctors had said when it was all over. They’d looked scared. Rey had no idea how Calla was going to explain to Samira’s mothers their daughter was dead. They would be devastated. She was everything to them. She’d been everything to Rey. Her best friend. Her sister. 

To add weight to her grief, Rey was subjected to whispers and distrust because she hadn’t gotten sick, not even a sniffle. Her squad and some of the doctors looked at her with suspicion; everyone knew by then that the cultists assumed to have spread the disease were human and placed the blame on the only human available to them - the one who had escaped unscathed somehow. One doctor even went so far to suggest that they should run an experiment on Rey, but Calla shot that down - Rey was grateful for that. But soon after Calla suggested Rey leave; the others in the squad wouldn’t be so kind to her. It was for the best. Rey had made a valiant effort, Calla said with some regret, but humans didn’t belong in the Commandos. 

Everything Rey had fought for: a home, a purpose, a place in the galaxy, was buried along with Samira. 

Rey didn’t even receive the comfort of saying goodbye to Samira. Her friend's body was taken away in a tube encased with a biotic shield and surrounded by Asari scientists and guards dressed in hazmat suits before Rey was released from quarantine.

****

Heeding Calla’s suggestion, Rey did not return to her unit’s barracks when she was freed.

She went to the one place she still could: Selene. 

The Matriarch was waiting for her. 

“My child,” she murmured, violet eyes glimmering with empathetic tears. “Come here.” Selene opened her arms and Rey walked into them, bursting into loud, grieved sobs as soon as her adopted mother’s arms closed around her. 

It wasn’t until the early morning hours Rey stopped crying. She lay on a long, soft couch with her head on Selene’s lap, Selene’s fingers gently stroking Rey’s hair as Rey sniffled away her final tears. The lovely burgundy gown Selene was wearing was drenched with tears and snot and as Rey sat up and lamented the mess the Matriarch dismissed her. 

“It’s a just dress, my dear,” she said with a patient smile. “I can get it cleaned. Your tears,” she brushed away the residual wetness on Rey’s cheeks, “are more important than any old dress.”

Rey sniffed. “Thank you,” she whispered. Selene pressed a kiss to Rey’s forehead but when she leaned back there was a grave expression on her face. 

“The time for grieving, Rey, must be swift, I’m afraid. I have something to ask of you.”

“What is it?” Rey sat up straighter, instincts on high alert, biotics at the ready for any scenario. Her training kicked into gear, overtaking the emotion of the past few weeks. Rey couldn’t say she wasn’t relieved to have a distraction. To have a mission.

A new smile twitched at Selene’s mouth. “You’ve learned so much, dear child. The Senate has elected me to report to the Citadel on the illness. They believe the Council should be made aware of it and that a Spectre should investigate. The Republic fears - rightly so - that the disease may spread beyond Asari space, if hasn’t already.” Selene folded her hands together on her lap. “I want you to accompany me. As a witness to the severity of the illness. You don’t have to, but it would be a great help, my love.” 

Go to the Citadel. Rey hadn’t been beyond Asari space in ten years, much less to the seat of the galactic government. Her duties as a Commando hadn’t brought her there and any travel off of Omega meant slavery or worse. She’d read about the station, of course. Had seen holopics. She knew of its importance to the Asari, its history. How the Citadel had been ground zero in the Reaper War. The place where Commander Shepard had made her last stand. Rey had hoped to visit one day and see it. 

And now she was to go in the worst possible way she could have imagined. Grieving and discharged from the Commandos. Part of her didn’t want to go at all, but at the same time what else would she do? Stay on Thessia? On a planet where the people would look at her with doubt and fear? She didn’t blame them at all, but it wasn’t an environment she wanted to be in. The journey offered Rey a new purpose. She could convince the Council of how dire the situation might become without action. For Samira. For the squad. For the colonists on Imeria. 

Rey took a deep breath and swallowed back a fresh wave of tears to meet Selene’s gaze. 

“When do we leave?”

**Author's Note:**

> For updates and reylo silliness follow me on [tumblr](https://star-toured.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/StarToured)!
> 
> Glossary: 
> 
> [Asari](https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Asari)
> 
> [Commandos](https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Biotics>Biotics</a>%0A%0A<a%20href=)
> 
> [Eclipse](https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Citadel>The%20Citadel</a>%0A%0A<a%20href=)
> 
> [Omega](https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Omega)
> 
> [The Reapers](https://masseffect.fandom.com/wiki/Reaper)


End file.
